Five MORE Fabulous Ways to Fundraise "outside the Box."

1. Drive for Dollars - Approach a Car Dealership and ask them to donate one dollar (or 50 cents) for every mile cars are test driven. They get lots of free promotion as you spread the word via PSA radio ads, email blasts, newsletters, ads in magazines, etc....The fundraising effort should last at least one week but longer if you can get the car dealer to agree. To keep it as organized as possible the Car Dealer should keep track of all those who come in to test drive and mention your charity. This is also a great way for both you and the Dealer to collect email addresses to those supporting your organization. You might want to also include some time of drawing and prize give away for each person who goes in to test drive a car.

2. Fundraising with Fido (also called Strut Your Mutt) - This is a great way to raise funds while involving pets and their owners from the community. To raise funding with this event you can either charge a fee for people to participate and walk their dogs OR ask participants to get financial sponsors for their walk. First step is checking with the city about requirements for staging the walk, or checking with a local park with a suitable pathway. You can make the event more creative by adding prizes for "Best Dressed Pet," or "Best Pet Celebrity Look-a-Like."

3. Radio Rama- Ask a Radio station to donate a period of time, a few hours or even a full day, to allow your organization to read commercials from paid sponsors. The non profit keeps 60 percent of the revenue from the sale of commercials prior to the You can also charge to allow someone to read a commercial on air. Depending on how much time the radio station will give you and their involvement, you might also want to include a special "Call in Auction." This will of course depend on securing ONE fabulous prize, but what a great way to reach thousands of potential bidders. This adds a whole new element to Radio Rama. You will need at least 6 -8 weeks of lead time to sell the radio spots to fundraise.

4. Here is another "radio" fundraiser idea called, "Producer of the Day," Locate the top morning show in your city. Odds are the radio personalities are well recognized by their listeners and they most likely have a strong fanbase. Create a "Producer for a Day," as an auction prize. So what is Producer of the Day? One lucky individual will join the morning radio crew to be a part of the action. They will learn what goes into creating the show each morning, have some one and one time with radio personalities AND be interviewed on the radio. To make the package even more attractive, ask the radio station to help put together a Prize package, CD,s and other items that only they have access to. To auction off the "Producer of the Day" package you can utilize, Ebay, or own Charity website or even hold the auction right on the morning show!!!

5. Condo for Cash - This idea will take a little more work and planning and won't come easy but if you can make it happen it will be by far one of the best fundraisers you will ever do. The idea is to find a builder that will donate a condo or house and put it up for Raffle. By having several non profits sell raffle tickets for 6-8 months, the builder will be get some amazing press and publicity. Again, getting a builder to donate the condo is a challenge and you may want to start by partnering with 5 other non profits that would come on board with the program. My non profit participated with a condo give away and raised roughly $20,000. Sell the tickets for $100 each. You will be surprised at how fast someone will spend $100 for a chance to win a condo or house. This was by far the most productive fundraiser my non profit ever participated in. Although we were not responsible for getting the condo donated, we participated in the raffle for 6 months by having volunteers and Board Members sell tickets. The key to this is reaching a builder very early in their planning stages and getting enough other non profits involved to make it worth their donation.

Remember one of the best ways to find new ideas is to brainstorm with your Board AND research to see what other non profits in other cities are doing. You can always build off other ideas and create your own unique fundraising efforts. Google search "fundraising," you will be surprised the ideas that will spark from your research.